Can I lose my job?

I'd say that your job is at risk of you take a holiday that has not been authorised, possibly a warning or worse. I found this on Acas website

https://www.acas.org.uk/unauthorised-absence/if-theres-no-valid-reason-for-the-absence

Could you look at changing the holiday to a cheaper time of year and go either may half term, or October instead even look at changing resorts as well as the date to keep it in budget? See if you can speak to the travel agent to discuss options, There may be an admin fee but that's better than losing your job, or them being seriously annoyed and your relationship with them is never the same again

Are you on a zero hour contract? I worked 8 years in hospitality and found managers really tricky with days I could work. Slightly different to your situation as mine was normally for days I had no childcare rather than holiday, but his attitude was always ‘you have to find someone’. Anyway I started rewording from ‘can I have this time off’ too ‘I’m unavailable on these days’, and marking on the rota the days I couldn’t work. Obviously that only works if you’re on a 0 hour contract, might not work if you obliged to work a certain amount! Also I was genuinely great at my job, highest sales in the brand etc, so I was fairly confident they wouldn’t get rid of me 👀

If you’re on 0 hour and you know they can’t afford to get rid, I’d just make it a statement that you won’t be in! (Obviously you won’t get paid for it if you do it like that though!)

I work in a school and firstly I would say that if it is a maintained school, they are normally very much into sticking to hr policies to avoid legal action and to not be seen in a good light. I would have thought the incident could not be classed as a severe disciplinary so I would expect that, unless you have already had warnings, you would just get a warning. It's a bit like a 3 strikes and you're out approach, it depends to an extend on your head teacher though on the severity that they see it at but you could sue if they did sack you as not many would see it as reasonable.

What you need to do is evidence your efforts. See if you can change the dates and the cost of doing so, explain to your head teacher the situation, how it arose and how much it means to you and any other options or lack of options. I would send an email explaining the issue and request that you would like a meeting with her, then you have it in writing that you have made every effort to try to make it work for everyone. If the holiday is not until July surely that gives them plenty of time to cover. Just this week I covered at lunch to cover someone and I work in finance. Even better, if you have a ta or anyone you are friends with and go prepared with the information that they are happy to cover you, or even 2 people to split the shift so that the head can not argue that they cmeould get a break. Normally honesty and proof of effort goes a long way but they will be conscious that they do not want to set a presidence to other staff and it can be a nightmare for schools to get cover so that is probably their greater issue.

I feel that you seem to have the perfect job for you, which you enjoy and ensures your work life balance works well. So why rock the boat?

Theta probably not much they can do if all 3 of you get sick that week, or if you just tell them you're going anyway, regardless of your contract. But who wants their colleagues and bosses looking at them that way?

I want to be part of a team and that means playing by the rules.

You are basically asking for an extra week off work to everyone else.

I wouldn't even consider going on that date, as lovely as it sounds and as kind as your nan has been. There will be options to change it, to move to a different chalet venue etc,

To be fair I'd speak to my Nan as well, because who can afford to lose £4700??? That's a ridiculous amount of money to be taking a punt on someone being able to go!!!

Also taking the kids out of school Is completely sending them the wrong message and will cost you money too.

Sure people will shoot me down, but I think a job that fits around everything else is worth far more than a holiday that shouldn't have been booked anyway.

What a nightmare, I’d go back to the school head and fully explain and basically beg for the time off unpaid.

If that doesn’t work then look how much it would cost to change the dates, probably better getting on the phone and hopefully get somebody sympathetic but to go when the schools are off will cost so much more, so could the holiday be changed altogether to a much cheaper one ? Is there insurance?

I work in a school as well and we would definitely try and accommodate this given it was a mistake, good luck

Hi Catherine. If your employer is digging his or her heels in over this maybe it's time to find a new job upon your return from this wonderful holiday. Don't lose it for the sake of an unhelpful boss. Good luck x

You can request unpaid parental leave.

https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave

The benefits of term time only jobs outweigh the cons. The one negative is you cannot take holidays during term time. Imagine your child’s teacher decided to take a holiday in term time? It just cannot happen. Been working in schools for 20 years with 100s of colleagues and genuinely cannot remember any one of them taking a holiday during term time for a holiday. There’s also the matter of taking your kids out of school, but that’s another story …..

You're grandmother can't afford to loose that money either... I would maybe put your finances together with your Nanna to see of you can change the dates.

Only you can decide if it is a risk to loose your job. Maybe you can offer another family or close friend to go in your place?

Speak to HR ask directly what the consequences would be... that way you can weigh up the risks associated with the holiday.

They can't punish you for admitting you are seriously considering going on holiday to protect your grandmother's money.

Both schools I've worked in, the kitchen staff are employed by an outside company that the school has a contract with so covering with other school staff wouldn't be an option!

I work in a school and just read our updated leave of absense policy.From which I gather that as the head has turned you down you should be able to appeal to the governors/ trustess of the school putting your case forward. Good luck.

Explain what's happened. Ask your manager if there is anyway they could let you take the holiday - maybe with unpaid leave - without loosing your job. They don't have to at all, but if they are nice people, they might understand the situation and let you go using unpaid leave even if it's not exactly their policy to do so. I would advise strongly against using parental leave, because that would really be a misuse of parental leave. Parental leave is for when you HAVE to do something with your kids like either you have no-one to look after them, so would have to leave them alone if you didn't take parental leave, or you need to do something for/with then that only a parent can do, like a hospital appointment. Actually your kids will be fine if you gave this holiday to someone else or just wasted it. Don't get yourself into a situation where your employer knows you abuse parental leave...!

Hi,

check with her, as you normally pay a deposit for these holidays, not the whole bill - the difference between losing maybe £100-£200 or nearly £5000.